The biriyani and kebab festival and the `Kozhi Kondattam' provided a veritable feast to the city's food buffs last week, writes T. SARAVANAN

Delicious chicken cuisines.

DURING THE past weeks, the Temple City appeared to have been bombarded with food festivals. After the Taj Retreat and Fortune Pandyan taking turns, Hotel Royal Court and Best Western Germanus joined the bandwagon. The former with its weekend biriyani festival and the latter with its week-long `Kozhi Kondattam'.

For the food conoisseurs, it has been a festive time with lot of variety coming their way. Both festivals were specialised events and yet with plenty to offer. If Royal Court gave varieties of vegetarian and non-vegetarian biriyanis and kebabs, the cuisine at Best Western Germanus ranged from Mughalai to Chinese and Thai chicken preparations.

For the Royal Court, which normally had handful of orders for its biriyanis, an exclusive biriyani festival only helped it by attracting more number of customers. Usually biriyani is more famous for its non-vegetarian cuisine but Royal Court also had vegetarian biriyani to cater to the culinary needs of the vegetarian customers.

"More than 100 varieties of biriyanis and kebabs are on display on three days of the festival.

This festival is a combination of vegetables, vegetable gravy, dry non-vegetarian dishes with specially prepared `dalcha' to go with biriyanis. Besides we also offer impressive desserts," R. Jayaraman, Food and Beverage Manager, explained.

With soft music filling the air, Best Western Germanus had chosen its rooftop as the venue. The ambience beckoned visitors giving them a bird's eye view of the city by night. Keeping in mind the different palates of customers, nine different varieties were on offer for the chicken food fare. The `Murgh Malai' was aimed at the Mughalai food lovers. In this platter, the Chicken is seasoned with cashew nut in malai base and cooked in tandoori, according to Chef R. Udaya Soorian.

Three special dishes were also exclusively prepared for the festival, `Turkey Masala', `Kadai Milagu Masala' and `Turkey Biriyani'. The list did not end there. Six varieties of salads, including four non-vegetarian salads, such as `Satay Chicken salad', `Egg Mayonnaise', `Roasted Beetroot Chicken salad', `Chicken Hawaian salad', too found their way.

The vegetarians had nothing to despair either. Though the festival was named `Kozhi Kondattam', a variety of dosas and rotis, noodles, idiyappam and curd rice were specially prepared to cater to the needs of the vegetarian customers. Two special Indian sweets, `Adai prathaman' and `Chakka prathaman', rounded off the delectable menu each day. For the diet conscious customers, fresh fruits like banana, apple, grapes, orange, guava and chickoo were available and children were lured with ice creams, dry fruits, `halwa' and `gulab jamoon'. Way to a man's heart is through his stomach, is an old adage.

But whoever relished the food festivals this season at various hotels would have had their heart and mind engulfed in satisfaction.